AMRITSAR: Paying homage to the assassin of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has come under flak both by Congress and BJP.

Senior BJP leader and the former Cabinet minister in Parkash Singh Badal's government, Luxmi Kanta Chawla, told TOI on Thursday that "honoring killers of Indira Gandhi is condemnable and an anti-national act". "My heart is peeved to know that a religious body like SGPC has honoured the killer of the Prime Minister of India, it is an act of sedition," she said. She added that earlier SGPC had honoured killers of the former Indian army chief late Arun Vaidya. She went on to state that giving title of Jinda Shaheed to the assassin of the former chief minister Beant Singh was an insult and an injustice to around twenty five thousand persons killed by terrorists in Punjab. "I wonder why Punjab government has maintained a stoic silence and chief minister Parkash Singh should clarify his government's stand on honouring of killers of Indira Gandhi and Vaidya," she said, adding that it was a known fact that SGPC was under the influence of SAD(B).

Strangely, SGPC had also been honouring the killers and their relatives when Chawla was in the Cabinet. Punjab Youth Congress president Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary said that paying homage to the assassins' of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on the behest of Shromani Akali Dal (B) by SGPC in the premises of Golden Temple in a hush hush way had again exposed the double standards of the ruling Akali BJP combined government. "Eulogizing the assassins as Quami Saheed and Martyrs of Sikh Panth sounds base political diplomacy for the Akali Dal and its leaders, this commensurate with their attitude of appeasing the radicals," said Chaudhary He said.

BJP will be further isolated for their fishy stand regarding such ceremonies and building of memorials, both morally and politically.

Meanwhile, former president of Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee Harvinder Singh Sarna said that it was unfortunate that the perpetrator of crime against Sikhs were still out of police clutches while the political parties were bent upon politicizing the issue for its vested interests.